[AusNOG] "Telstra" scammers still at it...

Sat Feb 26 14:15:34 AEDT 2022

Automatic machine detection is all based on the timing and cadence of the sounds these days. The older answering machine detection was more accurate because it’d listen for the click of the tape engaging, whereas digital doesn’t have that “tell-tale” sign.

  *   If you start talking immediately after the call connects, and it continues, that’s more likely to be flagged as an answering machine. You then get thrown for re-dial in a couple of hours.
  *   If it detects a short silence, then a short word or words, followed by silence – for example – “Hello?” – then it assumes you’re a human and connects you through.
  *   Fax tones are picked up with the answer sound, these are flagged as ‘fax machine’ and your generally not called again.
  *   Dead silence is marked as silence, and it often assumes there was an issue in connecting – so it’ll retry you again. Second or third silence calls to the same number are generally no longer tried again.

  *   Often 3 simultaneous calls for every agent are connected and tried – as the detection takes a few seconds – it’s based on a predictive algorithm that guesses when the next agent will be available based on the metrics. If it detects that you are a human, and if no agent becomes available, the call is generally disconnects, but you have been marked as a human, and a viable number.

All these rules are configurable by the dialler admin, so no one can tell what the retry interval will be

If you’re connected, and end up speaking to someone, they can also mark the outcome – answering machine, disconnection, silence etc – and the configured rules will generally take effect.

From: AusNOG <ausnog-bounces at ausnog.net> On Behalf Of Jamie Lovick
Sent: Saturday, 26 February 2022 14:07
To: Matthew Moyle-Croft <mmc at mmc.com.au>
Cc: <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net> <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] "Telstra" scammers still at it...

They seem to listen for common greetings, I typically answer stating my name, and it doesn't trigger, it just hangs up after a few seconds.

Jamie
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US <-> +1-8018-4-52643 (JAMIE)
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On Sat, Feb 26, 2022, 1:58 PM Matthew Moyle-Croft <mmc at mmc.com.au<mailto:mmc at mmc.com.au>> wrote:
A lot of auto-dialers listen for that and will mark you as a fax machine and take your number out of the pool. Also will normally be a short call so to Rob’s point it’ll get marked.

Last one I talked to I just said “Do you really want to do this?” and they hung up immediately on me.

MMC

On 24 Feb 2022, at 6:41 pm, Damien Gardner Jnr <rendrag at rendrag.net<mailto:rendrag at rendrag.net>> wrote:

I just answer all calls and say nothing.  Actual legit people can’t take the silence and go ‘Uhhh hello?’  Scammers think they hit voicemail or something and hangup at the 4 second mark.

I answer easy 10 calls a day, 9 of them hang up at 4 seconds.

—DG

On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 at 7:10 pm, Rob Thomas <xrobau at gmail.com<mailto:xrobau at gmail.com>> wrote:
Can I *please* encourage everyone to answer any suspicious call, wait
a few seconds, and then hang up. This does a couple of things.

1. It tells us (the carriers) that it's a suspicious call. We have
reports on short-length calls, and if one of our clients is making 10k
calls a day, of which 80% are 2 seconds long, that rings many MANY
alarm bells.
2. Even if it's a carrier who is fast asleep, they're still going to
charge the scammer for an answered call. No-one's getting free calls,
no matter who they're dealing with. Answering the call, even for a few
seconds, means it's costing them money.

If it's NOT a scam call, and it's a real person, they'll call back. If
it's a scam call, the auto-dialler will mark it as 'scammed', and move
on to the next person.

Feel free to share this around - this isn't rocket science, but if
people don't know, they're not going to do it.

tl;dr: Answer the scam call, wait 2 seconds at least, hang up.

--Rob

On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 at 12:58, Kai <vk6ksj at westnet.com.au<mailto:vk6ksj at westnet.com.au>> wrote:
>
> Just got a call on "0432 383 486" from "Alex Watson from Telstra, about
> critical warning messages seen from my account recently".
> Alex had a moderate Indian accent.
>
> I asked for his Telstra staff ID and he hung up. Hahaa.
>
> Just hope the next person they call doesn't think it's legit and end up
> scammed.
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